The man, in his forties, was given a suspended sentence as he is a first time offender.

A lower court in the northern Italian region of Friuli had initially ruled that the man's act did not constitute a crime but the woman took the decision to an appeals court in Trieste, which deemed it to be an act of sexual assault.

The decision was confirmed on Wednesday by the Court of Cassation, the country's highest court.

The ruling underlines a sea-change in the judiciary's attitude to such cases.

In 2003, Italy's highest appeals court jailed a 58-year-old man for patting a girl on the behind as she worked in her parents' ice-cream shop.

But, just a few years before, in 2001, the court decided in another case that a single or "sudden" slap or pat was not sexual harassment, provided that it was "isolated and impulsive".